In WNBA circles, you’d be hard pressed to find a brand hotter than Playa Society.
“Put whatever Rhyne Howard wants in a box. She has the best Playa Society collection ever,” Esther Wallace, founder of Playa Society, said about the Atlanta Dream star with a laugh.
While Howard was window shopping the Playa Society booth at WNBA Live, the two-day fan festival held at the Phoenix Convention Center during 2024 WNBA All-Star Weekend late last month, Wallace was speaking with FN about the brand’s exclusive product drop for the event and what the future holds.
As for the drop, Playa Society released a Team USA women’s basketball T-shirt featuring its star-studded roster, a lineup that includes two FN cover stars: A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. The shirt was fitting, as Team USA — in its last game before heading off to compete in the Paris Olympics — was set to take on the WNBA All-Stars at the nearby Footprint Center just 48 hours later. (Team USA dominated Australia on Aug. 9 to advance to the gold-medal game.)
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As expected, the shirt was a hit. Not only did Playa Society sell three times the amount of product overall that it did during its activation at 2023 WNBA All-Star Weekend, its sold out of the Team USA women’s basketball shirt within four hours of the first day and had more shipped in a second colorway to the event for the second day.
“In 2022, I did a pop-up in Chicago for All-Star, we had a rack at a bar. We were like, ‘Come through, drinks on us,’” Wallace said with a laugh. “We had maybe 200 T-shirts and sold out in like an hour. The next year in Vegas, we had a space at WNBA Live and sold out of our drop in 10 minutes. I told people when I started this season we doubled up on everything, but we should have tripled up or quadrupled up. We’re adjusting, we’re learning how this growth is going.”
Wallace stated Playa Society’s sales have consistently doubled every year since the brand’s inception in 2018, and in 2024 sales are on pace to quadruple last year’s mark. What’s more, Wallace said Playa Society already hit last year’s sales numbers the first weekend in April after its 2024 Women’s NCAA Final Four pop-up shop.
Her team, too, has grown. Although still small, Playa Society now employs three people full-time, including herself, and there are an additional three in part-time, freelance roles.
And in May, Playa Society took on its first wholesale partner, retail giant Dick’s Sporting Goods. The brand started with 17 stores in May, and after selling out of the initial inventory within a few weeks, Playa Society in roughly 45 of the retailer’s stores across Las Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, New York, the Bay Area, Phoenix and Indiana.
“I had a strategy. We wanted to be primarily DTC. The ideal goal was 60-40,” Wallace said. “However, we’re kind of riding the wave and seeing where the journey takes us.”
She continued, “I love the community, I love direct-to-consumer, so I’m always going to want to keep that at the forefront. But I’m not going to say, ‘No, let’s make things less accessible’ when there’s a problem with accessibility in women’s sports. The wholesale world is a lot, and with a small team we have our hands full. I’ve got some core to build within the team.”
When asked about why people are so enamored with her brand, Wallace — who was one of the entrepreneurs included on the Inc. Female Founders 200 list in 2023 — said it’s because nothing about Playa Society is manufactured. Wallace is a hooper herself, starting her basketball career as a sophomore in high school, then earning a Division I scholarship and eventually playing and coaching in England.
What also helps is how nimble Playa Society can be. Wallace said the brand is able to feed the customer what they’re looking for in the moment, whether that is player T-shirts during the season or if she needs to restock the “WNBA ’96” hoodie and sweatpants after NBA star Paul George wore them on his podcast.
“The best things are natural, organic. That’s the initial gravitation,” Wallace explained. “And the designs are great, there’s a skill level in the designs. But this authentic vibe can’t be manufactured or mass produced, that catches people.”
Twenty-four hours before women’s basketball fans could visit the Playa Society booth at WNBA Live, Wallace stood with her team to make sure they were ready for the weekend ahead. Her apparel, as always, were statement pieces of her own creation.
Her footwear, too, was noteworthy. Wallace wore the “Intro” colorway from the Joe Freshgoods x New Balance 990v4 “1998” pack, one of three shoes inspired by the iconic film “Belly” that instantly became one of 2024’s most sought-after releases.
“I have a lot of sneakers. Definitely a lot of Nikes, a lot of Jordans, a lot from the designers that I admire,” Wallace said. “I have a huge Pyer Moss x Reebok collection — or just Pyer Moss collection in general. And Joe Freshgoods. Everything he’s put out with New Balance has been really dope. I always catch an L trying to get the Nina Chanel [Abney] x Jordan collabs. I feel like the storytelling of my footwear collection would look a lot better if I had those in there.”
As the discussions around women’s basketball and sneakers heats up, Wallace offers opinions of her own. Although admitting she hasn’t shot a basketball in at least six months, she said she’s looking forward to wearing Wilson’s shoe with Nike when it arrives in 2025, and would like to see several other WNBA stars with their own signature styles, such as Howard and Arike Ogunbowale.
Wallace also admitted that she, too, would like to create footwear of her own.
“I’ve done a lot of personal footwear designs, nothing that’s ever gone to market. I’ve been sketching, whether it’s colorways or silhouettes, just playing around. I started doing that a lot during the pandemic,” Wallace said. “As a creative, as an artist, I don’t call it practice. It’s exploration. I like to challenge myself and if I’m being realistic, I’m preparing for what is hopefully down the road and staying sharp with those skills.”
She continued, “When you’re in the streetwear or sports world, you always have aspirations to do footwear. So I would love to have some type of drop.”
Admitting she has her hands full on the apparel side of things, Wallace — who is one of the featured speakers at the Black Footwear Forum in Detroit, which will take place in September — said she’d like to team up with an established footwear brand on a collaboration.
Although sparse on details, she hinted that something could be in the works. “I’m exploring what those opportunities look like,” Wallace said.
If a collaboration came to fruition, Wallace said it would be “core Playa Society” and have the vintage, nostalgic look and feel that the brand’s fan have become enamored with.
Also, Wallace said she would like it to be a partnership and not something that is one-and-done. “The best stories evolve over time. I’m not a fan of, ‘Let’s do this one thing just to say we did it and that’s it.’ Some things are great when they happen that way, but I like to evolve stories over time,” she explained. “I would love to do something that whether it’s over two, three years, we’re doing some significant drops that tell some dope stories.”
About the Author
Peter Verry is the Senior News and Features Editor for Athletic and Outdoor at Footwear News. He oversees coverage of the two fast-paced and ultracompetitive markets, which includes conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders and writing stories on sneakers and outdoor shoes. He is a lifelong sneaker addict (and shares his newest purchases via @peterverry on Instagram) and spends most of his free time on a trail. He holds an M.A. in journalism from Hofstra University and can be reached at peter.verry@footwearnews.com.
